An attempt to scrub the gathering moss off some stones and help them keep rolling smoothly along ... Thoughts on information technology and anything else, by Tony Austin, after a lifetime in Science and then the IT industry.

Tuesday, April 21, 2015

I’ve closed my company Asia/Pacific Computer Services and am getting close to retirement from the IT industry. Having started at IBM Australia in January 1970 I doubt if I’ll reach the 50-year mark, but I’ve had a pretty long innings.

I’m still trying to keep my hand in with Notes/Domino. Every month or two over the last half year I’ve made a number of attempts to install IBM Domino and Notes 9.0 then and more recently the 9.0.1 versions. Note that this is a “virgin” installation, with no baggage left behind from earlier versions of Notes.

I reckoned that I had been sitting on Notes/Domino 8.5.3 for far too long, and that I’d have the typical smooth and painless upgrade to the next version.

The Domino server installation went swimmingly, no problems whatsoever,

However I’ve never managed to get the Notes Designer/Admin Client to install. It always reaches close to the end, as shown by the progress bar, then complains that the “RCP Base plug-in not found” followed by a roll-back of the installation:

Despite all my research (at the IBM Support website and everywhere else I could think of), I’ve not been able to get an understanding of what has been going wrong and how to overcome the stalemate.

I didn’t ever experience this problem with Notes 8.5.3. … What on earth is going wrong?

About Me

Tony Austin ... Trained in science and engineering, still tend to approach life from a scientist's or engineer's viewpoint, but over the years have picked up skills in sales/marketing, journalism and other non-technical areas. Taught Chemistry / Math / Science in high schools. Joined IBM Australia in 1970, retired in 1995, since then have been an "independent consultant" [an oxymoron]. So now I have over four decades in the IT business, still enjoying it enormously - except, that is, for the same silly mistakes being repeated time and time again in function and interfaces, won't we ever learn? ... Decided to retire from IT consulting at end of 2013 after 44 years in the industry, closed Asia/Pacific Computer Services then, but am still regularly writing technology articles as an industry observer.